SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 8 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains an error. He was / bad injured / in the / last match.

(a)He was
(b)bad injured
(c)in the
(d)last match.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The faulty segment is bad injured. Injured here is a participle standing after was, and a word modifying a participle has to be an adverb.

Bad is an adjective, so it cannot attach to injured. The adverb form is badly, giving He was badly injured in the last match.

Ask what the word is attached to. Bad is attached to injured, not to a noun, so option (b) is the segment carrying the error.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
He was — He was pairs a singular pronoun with the singular past form of be. Nothing later in the sentence calls for were or for a different tense, so the segment stands.
(c)
in the — In the is faultless as printed. In the last match places the event in time, and neither the preposition nor the article needs changing for the sentence to be correct.
(d)
last match. — Last match is an ordinary noun phrase — the adjective last before the noun match — closing the sentence. There is no number, article or spelling fault in it.

Concept

This error-spotting item turns on one word class being used where another is required: adjective against adverb.

An adjective describes a noun: a bad injury. An adverb describes a verb, a participle or another adjective: badly injured.

So the test is one question — what is this word attached to? Bad is attached to injured, a participle, so it must take the -ly form. You can settle the item without reading the rest of the sentence.

The mistake is one word long and the sentence runs fluently past it, which is why reading it aloud is a poor method here. Hold each segment on its own and ask whether it could stand in correct English by itself.

Key facts

Bad is an adjective and badly is its adverb form.
A participle used after be, such as injured, is modified by an adverb.
Badly injured is the standard collocation for the severity of an injury.
SSC keys the faulty segment itself, not the corrected wording.

Study next

Adjective and adverb confusions: bad and badly, good and well, hard and hardlyParticipial adjectives after be, and what may modify themSegment-by-segment error spotting, where each segment is judged on its own

Common traps

Reading the sentence for sense, finding it clear, and marking no error
Suspecting the tense in He was because the match is over
Looking only at the longest segment when the two-word one carries the fault

SSC splits one sentence into four segments and keys the segment, not the correction. An adjective sitting where an adverb belongs is keyed the same way at 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.20, where They secret / decided should read secretly.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.